3a.m.

Humans say that midnight is the witching hour, but I’ve heard 3a.m. called the vampire hour. They sing that it’s the hour that leeches away human strength and stamina, the time when humans tend to die, the hour when energies burn the lowest and the life-fires dim.

That may be so when humans are old or sick. I’ve heard that 3a.m. is the hour when Death drifts between the beds, and the scythe swings slow, with no one to hear the movement, or to see the light shine a dim glimmer along the moving blade.

I wouldn’t know, that ain’t my kind of Gig, (and Death can tap-dance but he don’t sing too well.) I’ve been called to hospitals in the past, and to lazar houses and the plague villages, but with me some kind of happy ending’s part of the deal, and those ain’t the places to have one.

If I’ve gotta be around at 3a.m. I’ll head for the bars. “In vino veritus”, they say - and it’s easy enough to start a drunk singing.

Muse; “Sweet” the singing demon.
Fandom, BTVS
Words, 170

I sing more languages than you may know,
And would agree, thy lives are but a show.
And on the whole, some can be entertaining,
But hear, a life of endless Gigs is draining.

Those who would judge me may say at a look,
I ain’t the kind to recommend a book.
The truth is somewhat different, (in my role,
I am at least as happy with a scroll.)
My library is, sadly, far away.
But, from my memory, it seems best to say,
That Plato wrote quite well, so Socrates,
Was shown with wit that would be sure to please,
(While Xenophon, the military kind,
Showed Socrates to be of duller mind.
But if they quote philosophy or jest,
Their writings still show their own minds the best.)

But Alcibiades wrote a journal, once,
And that’s a man that never was a dunce,
Although in war he was oft' known as rash,
In private life - well, he was into “slash,”
And “het” as well, (and things that I can’t rhyme.
Like other men of Athens in his time!)
(But I forget, the censors had their way,
There was no public printing in that day,
And there were those who thought the volumes dross,
That library was burned, to human loss.
A scroll or two, a palimpsest, no more
Were saved to serve the ages as before.)


It seems my mind has wandered far away,
The questioner said “A book”, and for today.
Will Shakespeare wrote quite well, but then erelong,
you’ll find that reading him affects your song.

Ah, fret me not, you’ll get no more from me!
I haven’t seen a bookshop recently.
It’s not your modern writers that I spurn,
Your modern “paper” is too quick to burn!

Muse, "Sweet" the singing demon.
Fandom, BTVS
Words 280

My computer is still bad and I am also trying to relocate. Things are in chaos but I will be back as soon as I can.

Current Topic: "Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words?" Marcel Marceau.


I never met the guy, but I guess he wasn’t a justice demon – not my kind, anyway. Everyone thinks of us as the musical operatives but the truth is that words are my shtick. I work with the words that give shape to love and hate, to indifference and frustration and to rage and sorrow and fear.

I know the grey words that lure depression out to dance in the flickering shadows, while grief cries in a minor key. All the secrets lured out of the dark, given shape with the words, set to a tune to give them dancing shoes and put on stage to entertain.

That’s only the beginning, of course. That’s the overture. Who knows what happens after the curtain falls?

It can be kind of frightening to realize how much intelligent creatures have in common. “In the beginning was the word - and that’s one of the big secrets. Words are the difference between a thinking creature and an animal. Words shape the thoughts that shape your worlds.

Muse; Sweet the Singing Demon,
Fandom, BTVS
Words, 175.

My computer has failed completely. I will be back as soon as I can and I do apologise to everyone.

Topic 221 "Never pray for justice, because you might get some." - Margaret Atwood
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Justice is a strange thing. The whole concept is kind of … slippery, though I guess I shouldn’t say that, or sing it, either. There are several classes of creature who claim to be “Justice Demons”, but I’m not sure how well any of us do the job.

Mostly when humans say they “just want justice” what they really want is revenge. There’s a whole demonic industry catering to that. Just make a wish in front of the wrong person and you can find out a lot about that class of justice demon. The Vengeance Girls can be okay, in their way – you just don’t want to meet them when they’re working.

You might not want to meet me, either. Or then again, you really might. A few years back someone started the story that calling me would solve a lot of problems, help everyone to understand each other, bring the evil types to justice and arrange a happy ending. Well yeah, it’s true – in a way, for a given value of truth.

The Vengeance Girls give you what someone else believes that you deserve, but my magic shows people to themselves. I’ve heard that can be tough to take, even before you find that you're singing all your deepest secrets and starting to give yourself what you think you deserve.

Humans can find it difficult to do themselves justice – but then, that’s show business.

Muse; “Sweet” the singing demon.
Fandom; BTVS
Words; 225

People don’t lie, not around me. If they do they’ll find that they’re singing the truth quick enough. Of course, I didn’t have that talent when I was really young, but I come from a powerful family. Telepaths and empaths, song healers and virloparths, all liable to pick up the whisper of a lie. There wouldn’t be much point in getting fanciful with characters like that around.

( Nonsense )

That doesn’t mean that everything you hear where I come from is true, even if it’s your parents telling you. Anyone can believe something, even believe it with all their heart, and anyone can be wrong. Anyone can want to believe something – and the worst lies are the ones people tell themselves, always.

You can’t lie to me, not any more. You can tell me an untruth and I might believe it, but only if you truly do believe it yourself.

Muse, “Sweet” the singing demon.
Fandom, BTVS
Words, 234

215 Seduction. Have you ever seduced someone or has someone ever seduced you?

The Seduction.

She’d been married in the winter
When the nights were long and cold
When the army took her husband
For to be a soldier bold,
So she went to bed at nightfall
And she rose each lonely morn,
But fondly she remembered
The nights they’d danced till dawn.

I was wandering on a lonely Gig
And heard her on my way,
The song she sang was true and sweet
But then I could not stay,
I left her to her singing
As I smoked on through the town,
For there never was a Talisman
Hung shining on her gown.

The world was cold and lonelier yet
When I passed back that way,
With all my work there left undone
And the devil still to pay,
But then her warm bed beckoned me
Though common lore I scorn
I left with fonder memories of
The nights we danced till dawn!

Muse; Sweet the Singing Demon,
Fandom, BTVS
Words, 151

There is difficult internet access. My Mun/typist also has a fractured right elbow and other gloomy injuries - and wasn't even dancing when it happened!

"There's enough sorrow in the world, isn't there, without trying to invent it."


There’s enough sorrow in your world, all right, but I don’t invent it. I don’t even cause it, as a rule. It’s the humans who fill their plates with it – you wouldn’t believe how many ways they have to hurt each other. Some of it’s even accidental. It’s the humans who seem to feel that they can’t get enough of it, too.

They pile on the sorrow all day and then – you know what they do when they finish work? They turn on the TV or they go out to a show, and what do you think they see? Kitchen sink dramas, tragedies and tear-jerkers, weepies. Plays where the heroine commits suicide or her guy takes drugs, abandoned babies, wars and whores and chain saw massacres. That’s just when they sit watching a show.

Now, a lot of them go on this new Internet thing, and what do they do? They write. They invent sorrow, they write “hurt/comfort” and angst, (and the porn, of course. It ain’t all bad.)

I don’t make your sorrows. You do that yourselves, every way that you can, and then you bury it all down deep. My magic just helps it to surface, though I may give you a tune and a rhyme or two to help things along. Once it’s up and singing along with you then you just handle it any way you can - but don’t get too near a microphone. Even if you don’t get a real hot number there are plenty of your own who’ll hand you some amplification, if they hear you singing those blues too sadly.

Muse; Sweet the Singing Demon.
Fandom, BTVS
Words; 265.

TM: 210

If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about any one thing you wished -- concerning yourself, your life, the future, or anything else -- what would you want to know?

I guess I've heard a thousand songs
Or maybe I've heard more,
From those who fear the things the future hides,
I might ask if the lore will change
Or if my health will hold,
Or just what I should look for in my brides,

I might ask if the world will live
Or if the race will die,
Or if there’s a way to change
What will be coming bye and bye,

If I could ask to learn a truth
Before I could forget
I’d ask how to avoid
All acts I’d later on regret,

But I’ve heard the hottest numbers
Flaring high, oft and again,
From those who asked the future,
And revealed a world of pain.
.....................................................

No, this question’s not for me. This ain’t a thing I want to sing about. I’ve seen too much. I’ve heard too much.

Most religions and philosophies tell people that there’s always a choice of actions. Sure there is. What they aren’t so keen on saying is that sometimes all the choices are bad. I hear a lot about that.

Maybe I should ask it what kind of computer, operating system, ISP and antivirus would give me a few decades of trouble-free internet? Most computers hate dimensional portals – and they say Microsoft has a mind of its own, but it ain’t one I can read!

Muse; Sweet the singing demon.
Fandom; BTVS
Words; 179

They did not turn up to install the broadband. My internet access may end in a few days for an unknown period. I don't know what is going to happen about this.

What do I fear?

I’ve seen the frumious bandersnatch
And used it in a Gig!
(The claws that catch are in its way,
Its feet are far too big.)

I’ve seen the giant of Drannicore,
That drank the Priasan Sea,
They say it still has nightmares,
If it hears a tale of me.

I've heard the dragons harmonize
with notes both loud and long,
and tuned the music of the spheres
to make a sweeter song!

........................

But …

There's a demon that I dread,
a sneaking, stealthy thief,
Who robs us all, and robs again
and never hears the grief.

The other demons dread it too
It's crueler - oh by far,
It steals the gifts that life can bring
and dims the brightest star.

I'd swear that It's a savage brute
It steals a dancer's grace,
Or laughter's joy, or wisdom's mind,
It claws at beauty's face.

It brushes children at their play
And bars the nursery stair,
It whispers those we love away
And leaves a stranger there.

It stills the singer’s finest note,
Taxes each straining breath,
And in the end all pass It’s realm
And all will dance with Death.

Yes, there’s a demon that I fear,
No friend of yours or mine,
It passes, touching, taking all
That prowling sneak-thief, Time.

Muse; “Sweet” the singing demon
Fandom, BTVS
Words; 212

It's quite frustrating when the Powers that Be,
decide they want to set the scene for me.
It caused me some annoyance, even pain,
To find they're serving up a bride again.
Of course, I like my plots to twist and turn,
So maybe I'll be wed, or maybe spurn ...
A new experience is worth some time.
P'raps this will be my latest pantomine.

Control.

Humans sing about control a lot, one way or the other. I hear them sing about others controlling them and needing to control others. Those can be real hot numbers but some of the best songs come when they want to control themselves. That’s the biggest change that some people can make – sometimes by telling the people who want to control them to get lost!

Any of the other changes they need to make can be easy compared to that, but you’d never know it to hear them sing. I was passing through the UK and there are people sitting at little tea-tables, sucking at cigarettes - out in the street in the cold, cold rain. Thay've banned smoking in public places.

The last singer I heard there would have been pretty, if she hadn’t been so wet. Her voice was already kind of husky, too, sounded sort of broken...

( Bad Habit )

Oh well, another day, another Gig.

Muse; “Sweet” the singing demon.
Fandom. BTVS
Words 444

The latest news is that they will make another attempt to install Cable Broadband on Dec. 18th. My present ISP may disconinue before that so things may be tricky.

Please understand and do not worry if I am gone for a while. (I hope the Theatrical Muse Mods will understand - I keep on being told that access will discontinue and then that it will limp on for a little while longer. I can't just ask for hiatus because I don't know if and when I will be forced off-line.)

Topic 206 - What do you live for?

Are you asking me the purpose
of the life I get to live?
Asking me what I was born for?
or the things I get and give?
Or of what I’ll do
each time I get the chance?
There are people who would say
I live to dance!

I’m a very honest demon,
And I usually sing the truth,
Though I’m sure that listeners out there
Are inclined to ask for proof,
But I’m sure most would agree
on just one thing,
There are people who would say,
I live to sing!

Though I do my Gigs quite seldom,
I reveal too much for some,
And there can be real hot numbers –
And some say I live for fun.

So I maybe live for music,
And I maybe dance from pride,
And I may get my best moves on,
When I’m looking for a bride,
And I listen to your deepest joys and fears…
If I get the choice at all I’ll live for years!
I’ll go bopping on for many, many years!

Muse, “Sweet” the singing demon.
Fandom, BTVS.
Words, 169

Probably no internet access for a short while. I'll be back as soon as I can.